How to Tell from Your BaZi Whether Your Day Master Is Strong or Weak

Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism

In BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny) destiny analysis, how can you tell whether your “self” is strong or weak? This is a very important and also very basic skill in BaZi fortune-telling.

The “self” here mainly means the Day Master, that is, the Heavenly Stem of the day of birth. Judging whether the Day Master leans strong or weak bears on everything analyzed later: the Favorable God, the Useful God, the Unfavorable God, the Inauspicious God, career, wealth luck, marriage, and more. So in reading a BaZi chart one cannot jump to conclusions just by seeing “which of the Five Elements is missing”; one must make an overall judgment that takes in the Day Master, the month, its roots, its support, and factors such as control, drain, and expenditure.

1. First, Find the Day Master in the BaZi

To know whether you are strong or weak, the first step is to find your Day Master. A BaZi chart consists of the year pillar, month pillar, day pillar, and hour pillar, and the Heavenly Stem of the day pillar is the Day Master. For example, if the day pillar is Jia Zi, the Day Master is Jia Wood; if the day pillar is Bing Wu, the Day Master is Bing Fire; if the day pillar is Wu Chen, the Day Master is Wu Earth. Because the Day Master represents the person, judging strength or weakness is in essence judging how much force this Day Master has within the whole BaZi chart.

2. The Month Command (the Month of Birth) Is a Key Basis for Judging Strength

To judge strength or weakness from a BaZi chart, first look at the month of birth, that is, the month command. Because the Five Elements rise and decline differently through the four seasons, the same Day Master born in different seasons will have clearly different strength. For example, Wood is in season in spring and usually gains the season's qi easily; Fire flourishes in summer; Metal is in season in autumn; Water is relatively strong in winter; and Earth must be judged by the specific month and season. So whether the self is weak or strong cannot be analyzed apart from the month command.

3. See Whether the Day Master Has Roots

A “root” can be simply understood as whether the Day Master has force to rely on in the Earthly Branches. For instance, when Jia Wood meets Yin (Tiger), Mao (Rabbit), or other places where Wood is strong, it can usually be considered rooted; when Bing Fire meets Si (Snake), Wu (Horse), or other places where Fire is strong, it is also rooted. A rooted Day Master is like a tree that has sunk its roots into the ground: it is often stronger than a Day Master with no roots at all. In judging strength or weakness, the qi of the roots is a very important reference.

4. See Whether Elements of the Same Kind Offer Support

Besides roots, observe whether the BaZi chart contains the same element as the Day Master, or an element that can generate and help it. For example, if the Day Master is Wood and there is a good deal of Wood in the chart, this helps the Day Master directly; Water, which generates Wood, is also a force that helps the Day Master. The more support the Day Master receives from Friend and Rob Wealth, Resource stars, and the like, the more easily it tends to be strong. Conversely, with very little support, the tendency toward weakness becomes more obvious.

5. Then Look at the Forces in the BaZi That Control, Drain, and Expend the Day Master

Judging strength cannot rest only on whether there is help; one must also see how much the Day Master is being consumed. The element that controls the Day Master (the element that restrains it), the element that drains it (the element the Day Master generates), and the element that expends it (the element the Day Master controls) can all be understood as consuming the Day Master's strength to varying degrees. For example, if the Day Master is Wood, Metal controls Wood, Fire is generated by Wood, and Earth is controlled by Wood. When the chart has much of these forces and little force generating and supporting the Day Master, the Day Master easily leans weak.

6. Strength or Weakness of the Day Master Cannot Be Judged by Counting the Elements

Many beginners reading a BaZi chart like to count the elements directly—seeing three Wood, they assume Wood must be strong; seeing only one Metal, they assume Metal must be weak. In fact this method is not accurate. The strength of the Five Elements depends not only on number but also on the month command, position, roots, whether the element is revealed in the stems, and the combinations it forms. Three Wood born in different seasons and in different positions can differ greatly in real strength. So strength and weakness in BaZi is about overall force, not a simple head count.

7. What Kind of BaZi Tends to Be Strong

Generally speaking, when the Day Master is in season and rooted, and is also helped by Friend and Rob Wealth and Resource stars in the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, while the forces that control, drain, and expend it are relatively few, the chart is fairly easy to judge as strong. For instance, if the Day Master itself is in its flourishing season, is supported by elements of its own kind, and also has generating support, it usually has solid backing. Destiny analysis then usually goes on to look for the element that can balance the chart, rather than simply assuming that strong means a good destiny.

8. What Kind of BaZi Tends to Be Weak

When the Day Master is out of season, its roots in the branches are insufficient, the elements generating and supporting it in the BaZi are few, and the forces that control, drain, and expend it are many, the chart tends toward weakness. For example, if a Wood Day Master is born in autumn, the natal chart has insufficient Wood roots, there is little help from Water and Wood, and the forces of Metal, Earth, and the like are heavy, then the overall strength of Wood is easily suppressed. Weakness does not mean a bad destiny; it too must be analyzed specifically together with the chart pattern, the Favorable God, the Useful God, and the Major Luck Cycles and Annual Luck.

9. A Rough Way to Judge Whether the Day Master Is Strong or Weak

In actually reading a BaZi chart, you can proceed in the order “month command—roots—support—control, drain, and expenditure.” First see whether the Day Master is in season, then whether it has roots in the Earthly Branches, then observe whether the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches have Resource stars or Friend and Rob Wealth to help the Day Master, and finally compare the effects of Officer and Killings, Wealth stars, and Eating God and Hurting Officer on the Day Master. Taking it all together: when supporting forces clearly dominate, the self usually leans strong; when controlling, draining, and expending forces clearly dominate, it usually leans weak; when the two sides are fairly close, the chart is balanced or its strength is not obvious.

10. What Is the Point of Knowing Whether the Day Master Is Strong or Weak?

In traditional BaZi destiny analysis, the purpose of judging strength or weakness is not simply to attach a label of “strong” or “weak,” but to go on to analyze the balance of the chart. When the self is strong, one usually looks at what forces can appropriately drain and restrain it; when it is weak, one pays more attention to what forces can support the Day Master. One must take into account the specific Favorable God and Useful God and cannot decide on the basis of the words “strong” or “weak” alone; the chart pattern, the arrangement of the Ten Gods, cold, warmth, dryness, and dampness, and the Major Luck Cycles and Annual Luck must all be weighed together.

11. A Simple Mnemonic for Judging Whether the Day Master Is Strong or Weak

When first learning BaZi fortune-telling, you can start by remembering a simple line of thought: “First look at the month command, then the roots; with roots and help, weigh strength and weakness; much generation and support means the self leans strong, much control, drain, and expenditure means the self leans weak.” But a mnemonic can only serve as an introductory reference; real judgment of a BaZi chart still requires taking the whole chart into account. In particular, special patterns such as the Follow patterns and the Dominant patterns cannot be judged mechanically by the ordinary method of strength and weakness.

12. Conclusion

Whether the self in a BaZi chart is strong or weak is an important step no student of destiny analysis can bypass. Put simply, it means looking at whether the Day Master is supported by the season, by its roots, and by the other elements, while also observing whether it suffers much control, drain, and expenditure. A truly accurate judgment cannot look at just one element or merely count a few characters; all eight characters must be analyzed together. By mastering the steps “look at the Day Master, the month command, the roots, the support, and the control, drain, and expenditure,” you can gradually build a basic way of thinking for judging strength and weakness in BaZi.